I Can Fish Up Everything!

"Ah Nan, you’re amazing! You already landed a big one so quickly?" As Gu Nan used the crane to hoist the fish onto the boat, Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao finally got out of bed and came to the deck.

"Your girlfriend’s here too!"

They were very surprised to see Yi Chen, not expecting her to get up so early to fish with him.

Yi Chen smiled. "Mhm, I woke up, so I thought I’d join Ah Nan."

"Good, good, good. My wife and Guo Xiao’s should learn from you. They basically never join us when we go fishing." Wang Junhe nodded repeatedly, taking the chance to complain about his and Guo Xiao’s wives.

Yi Chen just smiled without saying a word. She couldn’t very well respond to that.

"We agreed on four o’clock, and now the sun’s already peeking out. Can’t you two have any sense of time?" Gu Nan grumbled nonstop as he bled the Dog-toothed Tuna and gutted it.

"HEHEHE, we just didn’t want to interrupt you two bonding!" Guo Xiao chuckled, completely shameless.

"Heh, well right now I want to watch the sunrise with Chenchen. Aren’t you two a bit of an eyesore?" Gu Nan shot him a glance and retorted with a cold smile.

Guo Xiao continued to argue, "We just got excited when we saw the big fish and ran out."

Wang Junhe nodded vigorously. "Me too!"

Guo Xiao said, "You two go ahead and watch your sunrise. We’ll look at our fish!"

Wang Junhe added, "Right, right, right!"

The pair’s comedy-duo-like routine made Yi Chen cover her mouth and chuckle. Gu Nan couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He really didn’t know what to do with these two shameless guys who lost all composure at the sight of a big fish.

He tossed the knife aside, washed his hands, and pulled Yi Chen toward the foredeck. "Come on, let’s ignore them and go watch the sunrise!"

"Eh? Aren’t you going to keep fishing?" Yi Chen was a little surprised.

"I’m starving. I don’t have the energy to fish. We’ll see after breakfast!"

After Gu Nan left the aft deck with his girlfriend, Wang Junhe quickly picked up the knife to continue processing the Dog-toothed Tuna. He then suggested, "Should we cook this one up for lunch?"

Guo Xiao had a different opinion. "I think evening would be better. It should be enough time to let it age for a day. It’s just that we don’t have enough time, otherwise we could dry-age it!"

"That’s true. It needs at least a day to age properly." Wang Junhe nodded, accepting his suggestion.

After they finished processing the fish and set it aside to age, they were itching to start fishing themselves. They took out their own rods and began rigging their lines.

Gu Nan had originally planned to watch the sunrise from the foredeck, but he realized the view was better from the flybridge, so he moved.

Cuddling with his girlfriend and watching the sunrise was incredibly relaxing.

A little after six, the chef had already prepared breakfast.

The spread was quite rich, with shumai, xiaolongbao, soup dumplings, savory pickled vegetable pancakes, and more. There was also red bean congee, century egg and lean pork congee, and various side dishes.

They had also gotten up very early, starting breakfast preparations before four o’clock.

Gu Nan happily enjoyed the rich and varied breakfast. It tasted leagues better than the breakfast stalls at the seafood market. The chef Guo Xiao specially hired was truly worth it.

Seeing how much he liked it, Yi Chen was touched. As soon as she finished eating, she immediately went over to the chef to ask for some pointers.

The head chef was a bit surprised, but he figured that anyone with Guo Xiao’s group had to be wealthy. Since she was asking, he decided not to offend a potential patron and told Yi Chen some of the recipe secrets, not even holding anything back.

There was really no need to. Yi Chen wasn’t in the industry, so it wasn’t a case of "teaching the apprentice only to have the master starve." Besides, things were different now compared to decades ago; skilled chefs were in demand everywhere.

Gu Nan was very pleased that Yi Chen was so eager to learn to cook. He didn’t disturb her and went out onto the deck after breakfast.

The two wives hadn’t gotten up yet, but Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao were already fishing. They were having such a good time that they showed no intention of stopping for breakfast.

"How’s the catch?" Gu Nan leaned over and glanced into the fish box beside them. He saw five deep-sea fish already lying inside. Clearly, the bite was hot, even allowing the two guys who usually got skunked to have a haul.

Wang Junhe grinned. "We might not be able to land the big ones, but you think we can’t even catch these small ones?"

Guo Xiao said, "Exactly, exactly!"

’If it wasn’t such a hassle to come out to the open sea, would we really have this reputation for coming up empty?’

"Heh, just a bunch of small fry. How boring!" Seeing the two of them getting a little cocky, Gu Nan scoffed dismissively and walked over to his own fishing spot.

Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao: "..."

That one comment about "small fry" was like an arrow to their hearts, and the smiles on their faces froze.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Taking advantage of the cool morning air, Gu Nan started fishing again. He took his rod and began jigging off the bottom with a HEAVE-HO motion.

In reality, bottom jigging is physically demanding. It requires constantly lifting the rod and reeling in the line, not too different from lure fishing, but much more tiring.

However, this method usually attracts particularly aggressive fish, and the chances of hooking a big one are much higher.

Every fishing method has its purpose, each one developed by predecessors based on various conditions like currents, fish activity, and wind direction.

After a short while, he felt a signal through the rod. A fish was nibbling at the bait, and his focus sharpened instantly.

The next moment, the rod tip bent sharply, the line went taut, and the fish was running with the bait.

With a bite this aggressive, there was no need to hesitate. He immediately lifted the rod to set the hook.

As he reeled in the line, the rod bent more and more. Even a smaller fish could put up a struggle during its initial burst of power.

But Gu Nan freed his right hand to support the body of the rod, lifting it up to gain some line on the fish before reeling in quickly.

Repeating this process, he spent some time and finally pulled up a Tiger Stripes.

Tiger Stripes aren’t just found in shallow waters; they also live in deep-sea areas around a hundred meters deep, and they grow bigger there.

Gu Nan’s catch looked to be between sixteen and eighteen pounds, which was not small for China’s coastal waters.

Unlike the envious Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao, however, he frowned slightly.

Wild Tiger Stripes are prohibited from being sold in a few countries, and there are even clear public notices about it in China.

They advise coastal residents not to eat wild fish with a particularly high chance of carrying ciguatera toxin, such as Tiger Stripes, moray eels, and the like.

Wang Junhe noticed his expression wasn’t exactly joyful and found it strange. "You caught such a big grouper, and you’re not happy?"

"This fish might have ciguatera toxin!"

"Pfft, is that all? I was wondering what the big deal was! For any fish we catch that might have ciguatera, we can just send them to be tested when we get back!"

Gu Nan’s eyes lit up. Having a place to get them tested would be perfect. He planned to come deep-sea fishing often in the future and would inevitably catch a lot of reef fish. He could get any risky ones tested, which would prevent him from inadvertently poisoning his customers—and himself—when he sold them individually.

The number of fish species that carry ciguatera toxin is actually small, and the probability is not high, but you can’t rule out the ’what if’.

If something like that really happened, not only would the customer’s family raise hell, but he would also have to pay compensation.

After stowing the Tiger Stripes, Gu Nan continued jigging off the bottom and successively caught three more fish, each around eleven pounds. Among them was an extremely rare long-tailed red snapper.

This immediately made Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao green with envy. They followed his example, switching to metal jigs and starting to work the bottom themselves.

"HUFF... PUFF... HUFF..."

The two of them rarely did bottom jigging, and now they were huffing and puffing with every lift of the rod. The sound was enough to make even Gu Nan turn and look at them.

’Good thing they’re guys. If it were a female angler, that sound would be a perfect ten.’

Using a large metal jig really did attract a bigger fish.

And just like that, Wang Junhe’s huffing and puffing came to an abrupt halt. He had actually hooked a fish much larger than any before.

The fish took the bait aggressively, and the rod was pulled so hard it CREAKED.

"HAHAHA, looks like bottom jigging is the way to go today! I really got one!" Wang Junhe was ecstatic. Judging by the pull, he knew this fish was no smaller than the Tiger Stripes Gu Nan had just caught.

Sure enough, after a considerable amount of time and with his arms sore from reeling, he finally pulled the fish to the surface. It was a seven-banded grouper.

He was so overjoyed that after bringing the fish aboard, he insisted Gu Nan take a picture for him, grinning so wide his gums were showing.

Now, only Guo Xiao hadn’t caught a decent-sized fish. His eyes were as red as a rabbit’s with envy. "What’s there to be so happy about? Ah Nan got tired of catching fish that size ages ago."

Wang Junhe’s gloating expression instantly froze. Hearing this, Gu Nan couldn’t help but chuckle.

"Someone who can’t catch a fish shouldn’t be so jealous. Fishing is all about fate, you know."

Not to be outdone, Old Wang’s passive-aggressive jab got Old Guo so worked up that he started wrestling with his fishing rod, whipping it up and down like a turbulent wave.